The Triumph of Self-Serve Information

This is issue fifty-one, and the last before we change the look and feel to match the all-new Jay Baer website.?

Come See Me in Scottsdale or Seattle

My big tour with Chase for Business continues, with forthcoming events in Scottsdale, and Seattle.?

Each event includes a sumptuous buffet, a pretty swell keynote from me, AND a copy of my new book (shhhhh), which you'll hear all about soon.?

No cost to attend. Would love to see you there!

Scottsdale, July 11 lunch.

Seattle, July 13 breakfast.

The Power of Self-Serve Information

I travel a lot, and I love learning, so I go on a lot of tours.

Yet, I strongly dislike most tour guides.

?They're often much too enthusiastic and fake, as if the local museum was an audition for a summer comedy gig in the Catskills.?

Or conversely, they're way too scripted, insistent that each of the visitors in their temporary care must be herded along a prescribed route, with no deviation allowed.

So you either end up with?Gilbert Gottfried, or?Nurse Ratched.

?I've decided I prefer the third option. And you and your customers probably do, as well.

Self-serve information.

My son Ethan and I were in London not long ago, and he very much wanted to visit the home pitch of his favorite English Premier League soccer side, the tragically inadequate try-hards, Tottenham Hotspur.?

Theirs is an incredible stadium, opened in 2019 and filled with all the latest fan amenities.

Despite it being essentially the iPhone of sportsplexes in aesthetics, technology, and general vibes, none of that was the most noteworthy aspect of the tour experience.

Instead, it was the?commitment to self-serve information.

Although we paid admission, there was no tour.

There was no tour guide, per se.

There was no "route".

Upon entry, you are handed a custom video tablet and headphones, and....off you go.

It's amazing. Go ANYWHERE in the stadium you want. Your video player knows where you are, and serves up a dizzying array of facts and behind-the-scenes content. Somewhere around 14 different maps are a click away at all times.

How long is the "tour"? As long as you want!

Sit in the seats for awhile. Get a drink. Take a snooze. They don't care. Pay your money, stay until they close at night.?

Have a weird question your info machine can't answer? There are guides stationed in every room and nook. Thus, there are "people with knowledge" but not "come along now to the locker room" GUIDES.

It was the best tour I've ever been on, period.

And maybe it's how all businesses should operate?

Your customers and prospects want to learn about your wares on THEIR schedule, not YOURS.

They don't want to schedule a call. Or set up a demo. Or meet your salesperson for coffee. That's all just burdensome.?

They just want to know what they need to know, with as little friction and hassle as possible.

And this is especially true for younger consumers. Nearly half of all Millennial customers NEVER want to talk to a salesperson when making a purchase.

What is the implication for self-serve information? Whatever you and your team knows, maybe extract it out of your craniums and make it available, online, for free, now.?

If your customer (or prospective employee, for that matter) has to have a face-to-face, or even telephonic conversation to access what they need to know to buy or join your crew, you are erecting barriers and creating friction.

Like orcas at SeaWorld, it's time to set your information free, and make it self-serve.

The Books Report

My great friend Scott McKain has done what I thought to be nearly impossible.

He wrote a customer experience book (and a darn good one), that applies both to internal and external customers.?

His 5-step system for over-delivering on customer expectations differs from my own advice on the topic, and that's why I love this book so much.?

Officially launched last week. If you care about customers, give?The Ultimate Customer Experience?a read! (Sold SO well that it's already out of stock... but order now and they'll ship out to you ASAP!)?

Jay's Faves

It's not a headline-grabber to tell you that more and more content is moving toward video.

I've even thought about doing this The Baer Facts newsletter in video format.?

(what do you think of that? comment and let me know, will ya?)

For now, however, my video efforts are over on the tequila side, where I publish four videos every week on?Instagram?and?TikTok.

Like this one:

For nearly a year I edited every one of these videos myself.?

Why? Because I'm both stupid and a control freak.

But now,?I've switched to Splasheo, and my life is MUCH improved.?

They do all the editing, and the captioning, and the making bettering. It's lightning fast (24 hour turnaround) and very affordable.

They also take long videos (Youtube, speeches, your kids' choir concert) and cut them down into tidy, tiny clips.

Need video??See Splasheo. And if you sign up, I make $2 or something like that.?